Month: May 2014

this week’s awesome finds

Posted on by trish

I actu­al­ly secret­ly real­ly like fried spam. Try­ing not to eat it too much though as I age. But these Totoro spam musubi are just too cute. From i am a food blog.

Par­ty hats, fit for the most mag­i­cal gar­den par­ties. From Oh Hap­py Day.

I love boxy-shaped shirts. Pat­tern from the Purl Bee.

This looks super com­pli­cat­ed but it’s actu­al­ly made with­out draft­ing a pat­tern! From Elle Appar­el.

Birth­day shrimp is such an awe­some idea. From Sian on Etsy.

Bread let­ter orga­niz­er! Might even dou­ble as a toast cool­ing rack :D From Twinkie Chan.

A very sculp­tur­al pen­dant. From Lion Brand Yarn.

I love fab­ric flower brooches. From Flax and Twine.

Pom poms make any space look cheer­ful. Rug from Home­d­it.

Mouse pouch, made of plas­tic con­tain­er lids and felt. Appar­ent­ly it’s a project that kids can make. Have to give this a try some­times. From The Crafty Swedes (in Swedish, I think, but with self-explana­to­ry photos).

Just look at the dinosaur hap­pi­ly stamp­ing its foot­prints on the cook­ie dough! This made my day. Spot­ted on Imgur.

Have an awe­some weekend!

 

heartland

Posted on by trish

Took a week­end tour of Ontar­i­o’s heart­land last week. There are many fun things to see and do just a cou­ple of hours of car-ride away.

Our first stop was the Per­son­al Com­put­er Muse­um in Brantford. I remem­ber these when they first came out…

pcm

We stayed at a bed and break­fast in Hick­son. The own­ers con­vert­ed the silo on their farm into an obser­va­to­ry. Ger­ald even gave us a per­son­al tour of the obser­va­to­ry, explain­ing how it worked and everything.

silo

At the b & b also lives a very affec­tion­ate cat named Paris. I love this pic­ture of me and Paris.

paris

We made a quick stop in Strat­ford, known for its fes­ti­val of Shake­speare­an plays (and now Justin Bieber). There’s a love­ly Shake­speare­an gar­den, but we were a bit too ear­ly in the sea­son to see full blooms.

stratford

The next day we went to Lon­don to vis­it the Muse­um of Ontario Archae­ol­o­gy. It’s built on the land where an Attawan­daron Iro­quois vil­lage once stood 500 years ago, and so there is a repli­ca of a long­house, made of tree branch­es and tree barks.

longhouse

There’s also an repli­ca of a dig site. I’ve always dreamed of becom­ing an archaeologist…

dig

Then we went to Wood­stock, the “dairy cap­i­tal of Cana­da”, and vis­it­ed the mon­u­ment of Spring­bank Snow Count­ess, a record-set­ting milk pro­duc­ing cow.

snow countess

It’s not a road trip with­out road­side ice cream, espe­cial­ly in the dairy cap­i­tal of Canada.

bartley's

Final­ly, we vis­it­ed the Cheese and Agri­cul­ture Muse­um in Inger­soll, with an inter­est­ing repli­ca of a cheese fac­to­ry. Here I was in the cur­ing room with a repli­ca of fin­ished cheese.

ingersoll

There was also a one-room school house and a dis­play of school sup­plies. I espe­cial­ly like this pen­cil box, with a built-in ruler. I would bring it to school any day.

ingersoll 2

 

Wish­ing you a week of delight­ful adven­tures near or far!

 

 

free-formed and off-centred

Posted on by trish

P1060416

Inspired by this bike skirt, actu­al­ly. Built on the cir­cu­lar cen­tre of this granny square pat­tern (a real­ly love­ly pat­tern, by the way). Some­how man­aged to make only half of it, and then added more rows around it, while grad­u­al­ly mor­ph­ing it into a rec­tan­gu­lar shape to make the shirt. It was a pret­ty free-formed process, which is real­ly my favourite way to cro­chet, so I’m quite proud of this skirt. The half cir­cle is cen­tred on the side and the rest of the skirt are just made of dc and hdc rows.

Had just enough wine-coloured yarn to make the skirt part, so I decid­ed to use a char­coal grey for the waist band, which was knit­ted on with a 1x1 ribbing.

P1060415

 

P1060414

We took these pho­tos in Strat­ford, while tak­ing a road trip through sev­er­al south­ern Ontario towns. Will be post­ing more pho­tos and sto­ries from the trip soon :D

Have a hap­py week, everyone!

 

 

 

for mothers

Posted on by trish

20140511-211706.jpg

this is a bit late in the day, but it’s what I would love to be able to present to you in per­son — the first wild flower bou­quets of spring. For you bring forth life and make it full with your great love. To all moth­ers, moth­er fig­ures and moth­ers-to-be: wish­ing you much joy and bless­ings on Moth­er’s Day and every day.

happiness and blessings

Posted on by trish

tiny bear

Made this tiny bear for a dear friend who is enter­ing a brand new excit­ing chap­ter in life. He has a tiny heart and a gold­en scarf and car­ries with him hap­pi­ness and many blessings.

 

tiny bear 2

Adapt­ed the Tiny Bun­ny pat­tern by Irene Strange on Rav­el­ry. Added tiny arms, and a tail made of a French knot, and bear ears of course. I think my friend real­ly likes him :D

 

Wish­ing you a hap­py weekend!

 

 

 

this week’s awesome finds

Posted on by trish

Knit cac­ti. Love the tex­tures made with dif­fer­ent stitch pat­terns. From Sewing Bare­foot.

Fab­ric flow­ers make beau­ti­ful spring brooches! From Crea­ture Com­forts.

Very cool hid­den stor­age, also from Sewing Bare­foot.

Beau­ti­ful crepe paper car­na­tions, from Ruf­fles & Stuff.

I like pat­terns that use both knit and cro­chet. From Lion Brand Yarn.

Ani­mal pin par­ty favours. Can I be the bun­ny or the owl? From Oh Hap­py Day.

Hap­py hous­es made of milk car­tons. From Bloe­sem Kids.

Nicer than real ones in some ways, even. Cof­fee fil­ter flow­ers, from Just Bel­la.

I might have post­ed this before but my friend Amy sent it to me recent­ly and it made my day so I’m post­ing it again :D 8‑foot giant squid pil­low! The most awe­some thing ever! Comes with the sewing pat­tern! From Build-a-DIY.

Pat­tern for a tiny rab­bit, weld­ing a nee­dle and vow­ing to pro­tect yarn stash (nee­dle and yarn stash not includ­ed in the pat­tern). Sim­ply the cutest! From Pops de Milk.

A dif­fer­ent kind of bun­ny, with a star­burst cen­tre this time. From Green Drag­on­fly.

Shep­herd knit­ting, with a hook! Nev­er seen that before. Might make a nice cowl. Must try it some­day. From Amore Fecit.

Mike would love this — sprin­kles can­dle! And it’s sup­posed to smell like cake! From Beth­Cakes.

And this one is for my sis­ter :D Goo­gly eyes make every­thing awesome. From Lit­tle Gath­er­er.

Have a hap­py week, every­one! :D